The following message was delivered by John Jun to celebrate the occasion of 2006 UBF Founder’s day. This message is a very good example of how poor UBF message can become. But all UBF members are taught that UBF messages are the best world-class messages and UBF ministry is gifted with teaching the Bible to intelligent campus students. Just read John Jun’s message and see how gifted John Jun is! The title of his message is “HAVE FAITH IN GOD”. In his message, he struggles to explain what it means to have faith in God. But he explains everything about the meaning of “have faith in God” except the real meaning of “have faith in God” in Mark 11:20-23. Outwardly his message looks spiritual and biblical. But his message explains nothing about faith in God. I am sure that a lot of UBF shepherds must have cried out loud amens without knowing how poor John Jun’s message really was.

It seems that Matthew Henry captured the flow of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 11:20-26 very well in the following way: faith, prayer and forgiveness. However, given the context of Mark 11:20-26, they are interwoven so closely that it is not appropriate to talk about them separately in this passage like Hebrew 11 where the topic of faith alone is deeply considered.

In this passage Jesus starts with having faith in God and ends with forgiving a brother. Matthew Henry seems to allude that one does not have faith in God if he does not forgive a brother. As he points out, Jesus’ disciples are very much interested only in the power of faith. But in this passage, Jesus seems to imply that the real power of faith is to forgive a brother.

What is the merit—of course, Jesus is the only merit available to us—of the power of faith that can move the mountain if the same faith cannot forgive a brother? What is the merit of the power of faith that can carry out 12 one-to-one but calls a brother an enemy? What is the merit of the power of faith that can finish MIT education but criticizes “topical Bible study” enjoyed by vast majority of pastors only to glorify Dr. Samuel Lee’s methodology blindly? What is the merit of the power of faith that can send out 100,000 missionaries when a brother is called a Satan if he raises a question about the biblical validity of “marriage by faith”?

As Peter was only interested in the wonderful power of faith that could curse a fig tree, John Jun is also impressed only by the power of the faith that can induce some physically or visibly desirable effects in the physical world which is sometimes called a miracle. John Jun is interested only in materialistic aspect of faith. John Jun is preaching only materialistic faith. But as one can see very clearly in the passage, Jesus is interested more in forgiving faith, a spiritual aspect of faith.

Suppose John Jun sends out 100,000 missionaries by the mountain-moving faith. And suppose there is a brother who is hurt and abused by UBF system. He leaves UBF and suffers from the big void created in his life by the abuses and the event of finally leaving UBF. But by God’s grace he finally comes to the terms and decides to forgive and move on with his new life. Now who really has the mountain-moving faith in God according to Mark 11:20-26: John Jun or the brother who has left UBF? I say our brother who has left UBF has “faith in God”.

The philosophy behind John Jun’s message is adopted by many popular unbiblical teachers. They only talk about miracle-working or materialistic faith: faith that can heal disease; faith that can make lots of money; faith that can establish big ministry and so on. Yes, faith is that. But faith is more than that. Faith is not all about 12 one-to-one and 100,000 missionaries. Faith is more about forgiving each other and receiving forgiveness from God. But UBF version of faith is more of materialistic and performance-oriented faith.

Consider all the situation surrounding our world today: war in Iraq; violence in Israel; nuclear crisis in N. Korea and Iran; genocide in Africa; crisis in all other countries. Forgiving each other is far more difficult than building a nuclear bomb or sending a man to Mars.

If John Jun and all UBF shepherds are so gifted in teaching the Bible, shouldn’t they know that teaching forgiveness on the Founder’s day is far more important than teaching how great a man Dr. Samuel Lee really was? John Jun and UBF leaders are not gifted at all. They just open their sheep’s mouth by force and dump garbage down their throat. But alas, they do not know that what they are dumping is garbage! They think that they are the most excellent Bible teachers.